15th March 2016

Myles Allan: ‘Our Standards Slipped’

Development Team co-manager Myles Allan admitted his disappointment after the ‘Gers’ 3-2 defeat against Alloa Athletic last week.

“The team didn’t perform to the same standards as they’d been setting over the last few games. The things that we had done well recently – hard work off the ball, good decisions in possession – weren’t there on Friday.

“Alloa made it difficult for us. They played at a higher pace, especially in the first-half, and we struggled to match that.

“And as much as they deserved their win based on the balance of play, all 3 goals were preventable from our perspective and could be put down to individual mistakes.
“But in development football it’s all about learning and the only way to do that is to make mistakes. The key is not to make the same mistakes consistently.”

Despite the disappointing performance, Allan does admit some disruption to the rhythm the youngsters have found over the past few weeks was to be expected, revealing:

“There were mitigating circumstances with Daniel Pattenden, Regan Graham (both work), Barry Hogg (injury) and a couple of other regulars being unavailable.

“I found myself scrambling around on Thursday evening and even Friday lunchtime to bring in a couple of trialists. I’d like to thank Rosyth Civil Service AFC and Harmony Row U19s for allowing us to use their players.

Midfielder Barry Hogg missed out on Friday's defeat through injury

Midfielder Barry Hogg missed out on Friday’s defeat through injury

“And even though I wasn’t delighted with the team’s performance, I spoke to John Coughlin who was there watching and he seemed reasonably happy with the performance, with a couple of players catching his eye.”

The former Burntisland Shipyard manager has been working with the club’s first-team manager more recently after taking on a coaching responsibility on matchdays following the departure of assistant Matt Kerr.

“We speak quite often. As I’ve said before, I’m often out watching League Two matches for John so I often discuss upcomng opposition with him, and now I’m taking warm ups on match days, so we’ve got a healthy working relationship.”

However John isn’t the only SPFL League Two manager Myles has been working with as the Development boss also works with new Arbroath gaffer Dick Campbell in his day job through the week.

“It’s been good fun working with Dick and Ian since their appointment. No matterhow much I hinted, they still didn’t offer me the chance of an early finish last Tuesday, so when I finished work at 5pm in Dunfermline they were already an hour down the road heading towards Berwick on the Arbroath team bus!

“I have to admit Wednesday was enjoyable but I want to keep my job so celebrations were pretty understated!”.

Berwick U20’s host Stenhousemuir tomorrow evening (7:45pm Kick Off) at Shielfield Park, with admission £4 for adults & free for youngsters.